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We next pass into the question as to whether Protestants can be saved (as such), and whether they are formal heretics or only material heretics. First of all it has to be admitted that even Protestants can (and typically do) baptize validly, and some few sects of theirs even baptize babies. A child thus baptized who dies before abusing the use of reason could be saved. And even for some time after the use of reason, providing it is not abused with deliberate serious sin. Picture a baptized 8-year-old whose religion has been about being obedient to his parents and other authority figures, sharing toys and food with his friends, being honest and not cheating on schoolwork, and about being regaled with stories from the Bible about Adam and Eve and the Fall of Mankind, Abraham and Moses and Kings David and Solomon, Jonah and the Whale, the Sermon on the Mount, the miracles of Jesus, the death of Jesus on the Cross and how that paid for our sins, the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, and that He will come again one day to judge the world, of "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so," and who has not been exposed (or at least not persuaded) to the Protestant denials of any particular Catholic doctrines. If also diligently avoiding sin, such a child could really be a Catholic living in a non-Catholic cultural milieu, and is not really a Protestant at all. Perhaps if he dies at this point he may yet still be as saved as if he died before attaining the use of reason.

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But assuming he lives, even so he is at a considerable disadvantage. Not having heard of the Catholic Sacrament of Confession he has not done it, but neither has he denied it, so he is not a heretic, but a substantial source of grace is not present in his life. And already he has acquired the mental habit of looking up to certain individuals for spiritual guidance who have a defective and twisted "gospel." His trust is gravely misplaced. And sooner or later the inevitable heresy itself must come, if he remains in that world, which by ties of family and friends and sentimental attachment he may very likely do. At some point necessarily comes the question "What about that other Church [Catholic] over there across the street? What do they believe and why don't we believe what they believe?" And the answer, if they feel it to be persuasive, formally introduces them into the world of heresy.

    But is that only material heresy or is it formal heresy? Certainly the famous founders of Protestantism, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer, and the like all had to be formal heretics. For they were all born and raised in the Catholic Faith, and then subsequently turned against what each of them knew to be true. They were therefore one and all knowing and deliberate deceivers, and there is no room to deny that their heresy was formal. Their immediate followers were likewise born and raised in the Faith, and many consciously gave consent to their being led into error, though some were innocently led slowly and gradually away by being misled by the same Catholic priests (now ex-Catholic priests) who had baptized them, but were gradually led away, often along nationalistic lines. But can the same be said of each and every individual Protestant today? On the one hand are those who were born and raised in heresy, and had been for generations, but on the other hand are those who might have been innocently led away in the beginning but by now must be conscious that they have departed from the Catholic Faith. Both may be conscious that they depart from the Catholic Faith, but given their upbringing and cultural outlook, can they distinguish the difference between departing from the Catholic Faith versus departing from the Methodist Faith (themselves being, for example, Baptists, ####ians, or Episcopalians)? Again, issues of culpability must enter in, and God alone knows who has it in them to desire and seek the Catholic Faith and who does not.

It is not a question, as the Reply piece insinuates, one of it being merely "harder" for a Protestant to be saved. A Catholic need only be guided by his Church, following its advice and accepting its teachings. A Protestant, as with any other religion, is obliged to "rebel" against his church in quite a number of things. When told that the communion bread is only a symbol of Christ's Body he recalls that Jesus did not say "This symbolizes My Body," but "This is My Body," and so admits to himself that maybe the Catholics might be on to something. When told that his wife should install a diaphragm to limit the number of children he balks at the suggestion. And so on it goes throughout all other deviations from Faith as are being taught by the ministers he still habitually looks to for guidance. There will be so many opportunities for the divine spark in him to be tested, and so many possibilities of failure and loss of the spiritual life confronting him from the very people he has been given to trust. Each of these poses a serious challenge and it is a rare Protestant who surmounts them all. It's quite a bit like driving somewhere blindfolded. It is not physically impossible to arrive at the destination safely and in a timely manner, but the odds are quite heavily against it.